Dessert Recipes

Carrot fruit cake loaded with raisins, candied fruit, and pecans in a spiced batter. No eggs needed. Soak with rum or brandy and store for up to 3 months.

Drop sugar cookies with cardamom or nutmeg, soft and tender with lightly browned edges. No rolling or chilling needed. Makes six dozen and freezes beautifully.

Christmas candy cane brownies with a fudgy chocolate base, hidden caramel layer, chopped nuts, and crushed peppermint candy canes on top. A festive holiday brownie with three layers of flavor.

Apple cinnamon crumb pie with cinnamon-spiced apple slices thickened with tapioca, topped with a buttery brown sugar streusel crumb. Classic Dutch apple pie style.

Deep-dish rhubarb strawberry pie with a flaky shortening crust, fresh fruit filling spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and a sugared lattice top. The classic spring-into-summer pie baked in a square dish.

Impossible blender coconut pie that forms its own crust while baking. Everything blended together and poured into a greased pie plate for a self-crusting coconut custard pie.

Old-fashioned sour cream cookies with nutmeg, rolled and cut into rounds with a sugar-sprinkled top. Soft, tender, and lightly spiced with a big-batch yield of 60 cookies.

Banana fritters in a nutmeg-spiced batter, deep-fried until golden and tossed in powdered sugar. A quick stovetop dessert ready in under 25 minutes.

Old-fashioned apple ring fritters: peeled apple slices dipped in a quick milk-and-egg batter, pan-fried in shortening until golden, and dusted with cinnamon sugar. A 30-minute dessert from grandma's kitchen.

Mom's Heath Bar cake with a brown sugar buttermilk batter topped with a crumbly streusel and crushed frozen Heath bars. A one-pan toffee-studded coffee cake in under an hour.

Cranberry drop cookies studded with chopped fresh cranberries and nuts, drizzled with a buttery orange glaze. A tart, festive holiday cookie with citrus frosting.

Vanilla pignoli biscotti are buttery Italian twice-baked cookies packed with toasted pine nuts and fragrant vanilla. Crisp enough to dunk in coffee, with a tender, golden crumb.

Basic pastry pie crust: four-ingredient single crust from flour, salt, vegetable shortening, and cold water. The simplest flaky pastry to master for homemade pies and tarts.

Fresh gingerbread cake paired with whole pears poached in ruby port with ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla. Served with ginger-scented whipped cream for an elegant holiday dessert plate.

Pumpkin cream cheese pie in a graham cracker crust with lemon and orange zest, topped with vanilla sour cream. A cheesecake-pumpkin pie hybrid chilled overnight.

Soft, cakey cranberry drop cookies loaded with whole fresh cranberries, walnuts, and a touch of lemon juice. Makes 3 dozen festive holiday cookies with a tender crumb.